Cash Money

We do not have thousands of dollars sitting around. We rent an apartment, we both work full time, we have debt (student loans mostly) and we have to feed this one . . .*

We have had to find ways to save more money each month in order to fund our adoption. We know it will absolutely be worth it in the end so we try not to let the costs scare us. We can save/raise/borrow the money we need to adopt but in order to really save a significant amount some things had to change.

The first change was to realize that our money is not ours- nothing in this world is ours. It belongs to God who provides for us. He gave us this desire to adopt, He will give us the resources we need, and He will teach us how to manage the money we have in order to be able to do what He has called us to do.

“For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” 1 Timothy 6:7- 8

Here are some ways we’ve been saving money in the last few months.

Cash Budget.

We went through our budget and calculated what was left after bills, savings, tithe, groceries, etc. We then gave ourselves an allowance. It seems weird to be in our late twenties/early thirties and married and be given an allowance, but it works.

I personally found when I had cash that had to last two weeks, I made much better decisions about how to spend it. I no longer felt like I needed “just a few things” from the store, or a new pair of shoes, or that candle, new curtains, or nail polish. I found I had been in the habit of buying things because in that moment I thought I really had to have them. Saving for something important puts those things in perspective and back on the shelf. If I wanted something I had to save for it. I had to spend less on something today in order to buy something better tomorrow. And it really worked! We were able to put HUNDREDS more into savings since implementing a cash money system.

Since then we haven’t had a physical cash budget but we have realized what our spending habits were and living like that is not going to help us achieve the goals we now have. Clothing, accessories, home goods, and going out to dinner are not our priorities. Yet, before the cash system it appeared that they were.

Cutting Corners: Haircuts

I went to get my haircut last weekend at a place that offers very low prices for services. I won’t tell you the name of the place, but it has the word “cuttery” in the title. When I get my haircut (every 6 months to a year) I either a) cut it myself or b) go to a place like this. When I a) cut it myself, the next time I go I am always asked “So . . . who cut your hair last?” And I can tell they are waiting for me to tell them my 7 year old niece did it. Tutorial on DIY haircut to follow. Usually when I b) go to a chain that offers low prices I am happy with the haircut. It isn’t fancy, but I don’t really care.

THIS time, I came home from my haircut and saw

Yikes.

I snipped it off and moved on, happy to have saved $40-60. Will I go back? Absolutely. It’s like 2 blocks away!

Then there was Uncle Roger’s haircut. His hair was quickly approaching dreads. Not that dreadlocks are bad- I have a friend who has them and it looks awesome! But it’s pretty bad for a dog to have such matted down hair. Who knows what’s living in there? What a cozy little place for a number of bugs or small rodents. It had to go.

We cut his hair ourselves. The last time we got him groomed it was $150. Except that one time, we’ve given him baths, cleaned his ears and clipped his nails ourselves.

We basically took Tye’s electric razor and put a #3 guard on it . . . then later had to take the guard off to get in closer to his skin. I’ve cut Tye’s hair before and I didn’t think it would be that difficult to cut the dog’s. But it was. It looks awful. I think this haircut was the wrong move.

 

And that was after we “fixed” it. Luckily he has no idea how bad he looks. And we saved $150! Next time we’ll try a Chicago skyline fade.

Thrifting.

This makes much more since when you actually find something you NEED at a thrift store. These items are just things I found that were significantly discounted from the original prices.

Though we are on a tight budget I still love to shop (when I’m in the mood to shop). Thrift stores give me the opportunity to shop, buy fun things for my house and spend a very small amount of money. And Chicago has some really great thrift stores! Who doesn’t love to treasure hunt?

One more verse about money.

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  Hebrews 13:5

*It actually doesn’t cost much to feed a Newfie. They are very low energy, low metabolism and do not eat as much as some think. We go through a 35lb bag of dog food every 3-4 weeks, usually costing $30-40. So that was a joke. Someone once asked “How much does he eat?!” and the guy next to him said “One small dog a day.” I loved that.

Whip It Good

These are delicious. Anything made from whipped cream is.

I made a cake a couple weeks ago and it had a caramel whipped topping. The next morning I took the whipped cream off of a cupcake and put it in my coffee. Caramel flavored whipped cream in coffee on a Sunday morning? Yes please.

Then I thought, why not have flavored whipped cream dollops in my freezer at all times? I can add them to coffee or hot chocolate, or just eat them. So that’s what I did. I made 50 little frozen bite sized whipped dollops with four different flavors. This is how I did it.

Easy Scale: 1.5. The nicer you want them to look, the more work it will take. Mine are average on the nice-looking scale. I would love to see pictures when you make yours.

Tools:

The first picture is of some options for flavoring. I used vanilla, caramel, peppermint, cinnamon and cocoa powder. Red food coloring, too.

The second picture is what you need to make the whipped cream. One recipe says 1 cup of heavy whipping cream with 1 tablespoon of confectioners sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. I doubled the recipe and ended up with about 5 tablespoons of powdered sugar.

Freeze the bowl you’ll be whipping in, whip the cream (with something electric is easiest), then add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Those you can add to taste. The texture of the whipped cream should be solid enough that it stays on the spoon. In this picture we’re almost there, not quite. One recipe says, “you should see soft peaks” but I didn’t like that. It reminded me of Song of Solomon.

When you’ve whipped it good, put most of the whipped cream in a piping bag (again, use a Ziploc with a cut corner if you want to) and pipe out dollops onto a cookie sheet with wax paper. I used tip #32.

I then sprinkled these with either 1) caramel 2) cocoa powder or 3) cinnamon.

I immediately put them into the freezer so they would hold their shape.

I took the remaining whipped cream and added peppermint extract to taste. I put that whipped cream in the same piping bag and piped out more dollops onto cookie sheets with wax paper.

To make them prettier and help to give people the idea that they are peppermint flavored, I dipped a toothpick into red food coloring and drew some stripes.

Again, immediately into the freezer.

After a half hour or so they are pretty solid and you can combine them all into one storage container. They melt really quickly!

Here are some pictures of all of them together. And one of my hot chocolate with a peppermint dollop. You have to sample . . .

 

Have fun! I would love to hear your comments/suggestions for flavors or storage for gifts.

Mini Mummy Making

I originally saw these little mummies somewhere . . . probably on a magazine at a Target check out aisle. I can’t remember where it was but I do know they were not my idea. I just made a batch and now I’m telling you about it so you can do the same.

Easy Scale: 1. Very few ingredients and tools are needed.

Cake.

Secret: I use boxed cake mixes. My mom taught me that. She is a fantastic baker, yet she uses a box. She must think it’s worth it. They are so easy and delicious, why start from scratch? Betty makes things easier.

Here is what you need for the cake (or you can make it from scratch and it will probably be even more delicious). I made a white cake and added some almond flavor to it. Why is the mayonnaise there? My mom taught me to use a box, but she also taught me to add a scoop of mayo to the mix to make it better.

After mixing the batter I filled a mini muffin tin. Each cupcake is 2/3 full. i used a small spoon and an ice cream scoop to fill. They work well together.

Bake as long as the box says. When they get close you can tap the top of a cupcake and see how firm it is. If it bounces back, take them out of the oven and get them out of the pan so they stop baking. Try not to open the oven door when you are baking cakes- they could drop.

Frosting.

My mom also taught me to love almond flavoring. That’s why I add about 5 times as much almond as the recipe calls for. You can find any butter cream frosting recipe and add almond flavor instead of vanilla. My favorite frosting recipe is this. Or you can make a vanilla frosting. That’s good, too. I wanted the mummies to taste like wedding cake. It’s the best kind of cake.

Frosting should be thick enough so it sticks to a spoon, but thin enough to spread or pipe.

This is the tip you use. It has teeth on one side and is straight on the other. It’s #47 and can be purchased in a pack of two tips. You don’t have to buy a whole set of them.

A trick I learned from a chef making gnocchi in a piping bag was to spin the bag around. It moves the contents to the tip side and removes air bubbles. No piping bag? Use a gallon Ziploc with a corner cut.

Then you need some eyes (this project just got cute).

When the cupcakes are cooled you can start frosting. Put they eyes on first; you can sort of lock them in with the frosting. Add on the mummy wraps one by one.

By the time I was done I had a set pattern and stuck with it. The first 30 were practice. I am not an artist!

Here is my display for the cupcake competition at work. I ran out of eyes so I had to use sprinkles on some. The little mummies won “Best Appearance” and a $10 gift card to Jewel!

There you go! Great for cupcakes or cookies. Happy Halloween!

Adoption in the Media

Adoption is everywhere!

When we decided to adopt we started seeing it more. It’s like when you get a red car and then notice how many other red cars there are. Except more serious than that. And we don’t have a red car, but we do have a wagon and we notice the other wagons now. That should have been the original example.

We all know media has a great affect on us so for me it is encouraging to see celebrities adopt and to see adoption stories in movies and sitcoms. I hope it leads to more people feeling like adoption is a possibility, even if the story is silly like some of these.

Remember Joey’s recommendation letter in Friends? “Baby Kangaroo Tribiani”

And how about this Lion King announcement from Modern Family? Can we picture Tye doing this? I love Phil’s comment.

I love these parents in Easy A.

This is a scene from Despicable Me. Isn’t Agnes (little Krista Smith (my baby sister)) adorable? I do wish our house was made of gummy bears.

And here is a great scene from What to Expect When You’re Expecting which I said I wouldn’t watch until we’re closer to expecting. I still haven’t seen it, but I found this clip. Grab a tissue.

Tear-jerker, right?

As far as celebrity adoptions are concerned, I think we all know who wins the spot in this blog.

Brad and Angelina

Good for them! I love seeing celebrities adopt. I don’t think it’s for publicity or to look cool. They already look cool! They have no one to impress. I believe most celebrities are adopting because they see the need and they want to help.

Tye was at the Atlanta airport last week and saw a family with TEN adopted children! If we had the money some of these celebrities do I think that would be a great way to spend it.

Curious about which celebrities were adopted? Lucky for you I have a list right here.

Marilyn Monroe (actress)
Moses (biblical leader) I was a little shocked that this was on the list. More biblical characters should be considered celebrities…
Mother Teresa (humanitarian)
Michael Bay (director)
Ingrid Bergman (actress)
Augustus Caesar (emporer of Rome)
Harry Caray (baseball broadcaster)
Kristin Chenoweth (actress)
Eric Clapton (singer)
President Bill Clinton
Nat King Cole (singer)
Gary Coleman (actor)
Daunte Culpepper (professional football)
Ted Danson (actor, adopted child and adoptive father)
President Gerald Ford
Jamie Foxx (singer, actor)
Tim Green (professional football)
Melissa Gilbert (actress)
Newt Gingrich (politician)
Faith Hill (singer)
Scott Hamilton (professional skater)
John Hancock (U.S. Founding Father)
Jesse Jackson (politician)

Super long list. Plus I deleted people I didn’t recognize. Here are more.

Steve Jobs (co-founder of Apple)
John Lennon (singer)
Allan “apl.de.ap” Pineda Lindo, jr. (singer, member of Black Eyed Peas)
Greg Louganis (Olympic Gold Medal Diver)
Malcolm X (human rights activist)
Lee Majors (actor)
Nelson Mandela (human rights activist)
Nimmy March (actress)
James MacArthur (actor)
Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels (musician)
Frances McDormand (actress)
Tim McGraw (singer)
Sarah McLachlan (singer)
Tom Monaghan (founder of Domino’s Pizza, owner of Detroit Tigers)
Michael Oher (professional football, story inspired The Blind Side)
Jim Palmer (professional baseball)
Aaron Parchem (Olympic figure skater)
Lorraine Pascale (model, author and chef)
Dana Plato (actress)
Edgar Allen Poe (author)
Nicole “Snookie” Polizzi (TV personality)
Priscilla Presley (actress)
First Lady Nancy Reagan
Nicole Richie (TV personality)
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
Dave Thomas (founder of Wendy’s, children’s advocate)

There are so many great examples, I thought we could overlook these:

Nicole

Bill

and Snookie

But we still love them.

Visit this website for more on who has adopted or who chose adoption as birthparents.

I am disappointed that I couldn’t find a clip from The Office. I know Michael once asked Pam to look in to adoption for him. She then told him it could take a long time, possibly 6 months or a year. His response was, “Forget it, I don’t even know if I’ll want a baby in a year.” Epic scene, but I couldn’t find it. Hopefully you can laugh with me because you remember the scene I’m talking about.

So there you have it. Adoption is everywhere.

Were you adopted? Have you adopted? Are you considering adoption for your family? Do you know of any sitcoms or movies I missed?